Any municipality, by resolution of its legislative body, as defined in section 1-1, may assign, for consideration, any and all liens filed by the tax collector to secure unpaid taxes on real property as provided under the provisions of this chapter. The consideration received by the municipality shall be negotiated between the municipality and the assignee. The assignee or assignees of such liens shall have and possess the same powers and rights at law or in equity as such municipality and municipality's tax collector would have had if the lien had not been assigned with regard to the precedence and priority of such lien, the accrual of interest and the fees and expenses of collection and of preparing and recording the assignment. The assignee shall have the same rights to enforce such liens as any private party holding a lien on real property including, but not limited to, foreclosure and a suit on the debt. The assignee, or any subsequent assignee, shall provide written notice of an assignment, not later than thirty days after the date of such assignment, to any holder of a mortgage, on the real property that is the subject of the assignment, provided such holder is of record as of the date of such assignment. Such notice shall include information sufficient to identify (1) the property that is subject to the lien and in which the holder has an interest, (2) the name and addresses of the assignee, and (3) the amount of unpaid taxes, interest and fees being assigned relative to the subject property as of the date of the assignment.
(P.A. 93-434, S. 19, 20; P.A. 13-135, S. 16; 13-276, S. 40.)
History: P.A. 93-434 effective June 30, 1993; P.A. 13-135 added provisions re notice of assignment; P.A. 13-276 added provision re fees and expenses of preparing and recording the assignment and added provision re foreclosure and a suit on the debt.
Change in marital status affecting ownership is not by itself good cause to open foreclosure judgment based on change in circumstances. 52 CA 52. A municipal tax lien is more analogous to a transfer of debt than to a transfer of title and as such is not considered a “conveyance” under Sec. 47-10, and accordingly, more specific statutes, such as this section, governing tax liens, which do not require recordation, should take precedence over more general land transfer statutes, such as Sec. 47-10, which do require recordation, thus an assignee's failure to record the assignment of a tax lien does not deprive such assignee of standing to bring a foreclosure action. 196 CA 279. Amendment in 2013 adding “suit on the debt” does not affect situation where plaintiff or assignee acquired title to property by foreclosure because pursuant to Sec. 12-195 all of its claims, in whatever form those claims might take, were extinguished upon such acquisition. 196 CA 298.
Assignee succeeds only to the assignor municipality's enforcement right empowered by Sec. 12-181, and not to the municipality's other authorized collection methods. 45 CS 435.